


Removed From Circulation

by LacePendragon



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Gen, Internal Monologue, Post V7C6, V7C6 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21709243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LacePendragon/pseuds/LacePendragon
Summary: “It’s Ironwood’s robot!”Except she didn’t do it. Except she’s not just a thing. Except she’s not sure if either of those is true anymore. Or, Penny’s thoughts, at the end of V7C6.
Comments: 19
Kudos: 48





	Removed From Circulation

**Author's Note:**

> It's short but I wrote meta on this moment and needed to write SOMETHING to go with it. It's very angsty A Lot but I hope you enjoy it.

_“It’s Ironwood’s robot!”_

The words echoed through her mind like the ringing of metal against metal. She stared, eyes wide, at Robyn, at the people. She couldn’t find the words to explain what she’d seen. What had she seen? Other than a figure in the shadows, there one moment and gone the next. Nothing made sense. Why had her vision failed her?

There had been an assailant. She knew that. She knew that.

Did she know that?

Or had she attacked these people? She didn’t think so. She never attacked people. People were kind. People were good.

But what had happened in that warehouse? In that party?

What had happened?

_“It’s Ironwood’s robot!”_

When Father had first built her, he’d called her a person. He’d told her she was his pride and joy. His daughter. When she’d gone to Vale, she had feared that people would judge her, and so had her father, and so they’d kept what she was secret.

Until Ruby. Ruby, who told Penny she was real, even when Penny didn’t _feel_ real. Ruby, who called Penny her friend. Ruby, who had cried when Penny had found her, alone, in Atlas, when her friends first arrived. Who’d clung to Penny and sobbed because she was ‘so happy that Penny was okay’.

When Father had rebuilt her, he’d said she was better. He’d said that even though the world knew _what_ she was now, it was up to her to tell them _who_ she was. She was a person. She was Penny. And she would be the protector of Mantle.

But Mantle was falling. And Mantle didn’t want her.

_“It’s Ironwood’s robot!”_

When Robyn Hill stood before her on that snowy road and looked at Penny the way she had, Penny had never felt smaller. Guilt had racked her body and made her stop, made her stumble, made her shrink up and try to hide, despite being out in the open. Robyn had called Penny the protector of Mantle, but in a way that left Penny knowing that she did not mean it. She had questioned it. Just as she had questioned Clover, Qrow, and Ruby.

Penny wasn’t good at questioning things.

She had been told her destiny, her decisions, all her life.

She was a protector. She was a saviour. She was a soldier. Her duty was to the people of Mantle, Atlas, and all of Remnant. Her orders were clean-cut and simple, and often directly from General Ironwood. They had always been right.

Now, she wasn’t so certain.

_“It’s Ironwood’s robot!”_

When she’d first stepped in as the protector of the city of Mantle, she had feared the reaction of the citizens. How would they treat her, knowing she was an android? Knowing that she was made of metal and circuitry, rather than flesh and blood? And certainly, some people had reacted badly, but so much of Mantle had welcomed her. She had been their hero. Their star.

She’d had billboards. She’d signed autographs. Little girls told her that she was pretty. Little boys told her she was tough. So many of them wanted to grow up and be just like her. They adored her. They asked her for help. Many people smiled at her in the street.

But that had all been before the Amity Colosseum was moved to the secret location. Ever since, the people of Mantle hadn’t been as kind. But she’d known it was all for the best. She’d known, eventually, that everything would be okay. The Colosseum would become a CCT, General Ironwood would tell everyone the truth, and Penny would return to her duties, beloved as ever.

Even if the people of Mantle didn’t like her, they respected her existence. Despite knowing everything, they still accepted her as one of their huntresses.

And for that, she had been so very, very proud of herself.

_“It’s Ironwood’s robot!”_

They no longer saw her as a person. They no longer saw her as any _one_. Just a _thing._ A robot, just like the Knights. As if she were nothing more than another cog in the war machine of Atlas.

Not a person, a robot.

Not a person, a weapon.

Not a person, just a machine to point fingers and blame toward.

Not even her father’s, but General Ironwood’s. As if he was the one who had created her. As if he was the one who’d fought so long, and so hard, to bring her back. And yes, he had helped.

But she was not _his._

She was her father’s. She was a Polendina.

She was _her own._

Wasn’t she?

She didn’t know anymore. Did she ever know anything? Was her knowledge not the sum of whatever programs her father had written? Was anything she knew real? Was anything she knew the truth? She had calculated the odds that Ruby was lying about telling them everything and found it to be over forty percent. She hadn’t told General Ironwood. Maybe she should have.

She wasn’t used to making decisions on her own.

_“It’s Ironwood’s robot!”_

She wanted to put her hands over her ears, but it wouldn’t work. The words were trapped in her mind now, echoing forever within the metal.

_“It’s ironwood’s robot!”_

She stared up at the falling world of Mantle but found her own sorrow drowned out her worries for the city. Was she a person? Had she always been a machine? Were the two mutually exclusive? Had her father lied to her?

Was her purpose null?

Was her existence without meaning?

Had she been a fool, to ever think she’d be anything but a robot?

She couldn’t be a person.

She didn’t even have a heart.

What kind of person didn’t have a heart?

She lifted off the ground and flew out into the city. She didn’t know where she was going. But she needed to run. From the words. From the thoughts. From herself. Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing was how it had been.

If she could cry, she would have, but she couldn’t.

Because Ruby had been wrong all along. Penny wasn’t a real girl.

And she never had been.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are loved!


End file.
